Gideon Johnson Pillow

Gideon Johnson Pillow (8 June 1806-8 October 1878) was a Brigadier-General of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

Biography
Gideon Johnson Pillow was born in Williamson County, Tennessee on 8 June 1806, and he graduated from the University of Nashville in 1827 and became a lawyer. In 1831, he became a district attorney general, and he became a Brigadier-General in the Tennessee state militia. During the Mexican-American War, he became a Brigadier-General of the US Army's volunteers, and he was wounded at Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec during the war. In 1848, he was involved in a lawsuit against General Winfield Scott on bribery charges, as it was alleged that Scott and Mexican president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had been negotiating a quick end to the war in exchange for Santa Anna giving money to Scott. In 1850, Pillow served as a delegate to the Nashville Convention, and he became a member of the US Democratic Party. In 1861, he became a Brigadier-General in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, fighting against the Union in Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky. He surrendered Fort Donelson to Ulysses S. Grant in 1862, and he held no commands after the defeat at the Battle of Stones River. Fort Pillow, the site of an infamous massacre, was named for him. After the war, Pillow opened a law practice, and he died in 1878 at the age of 72.